The Higurashi Secret
by lovediva100
Summary: After the well closes Kagome finds out that she is living with her aunt. When she and her brother move in with her mother she has to find a way to survive the harshness of neglectful parenting. Finally she reaches out to her grandparents only to find out that her father is really alive. When she goes to live with them she finds out that all of the youkai are hiding in her family.


Chapter 1

Kagome sighed as her mother yelled at her to hurry up and make her something to eat. It wasn't an easy task considering there was no food in the house. She made a mental note to go shopping tonight. Then she realized she would need to bring Souta so he could pick out some things for breakfast and lunch. Mentally calculating how much money it would take she held back a groan. She would have no money left by the end of the week. Plus she didn't get paid until next week.

Shaking her head she knew she would have to confront her mother on the money she was keeping from her father's family. She wasn't stupid, her mother would get money to take care of them and spend it on her alcohol. Maybe it was time for her to send a letter to her distant grandparents to bring a little light to the situation. Then hopefully she could convince them that they didn't need to bring in the authorities and just send her the money instead.

It hasn't been easy for the once time traveling miko. Not long after the well stopped working her grandfather died. And at his funeral a lot of things came to light. Ever since she was six and Souta was one her aunt has been taking care of her. Apparently that was what her grandpa wanted because he figured that his other daughter would be too devastated from her husband's death to take care of them. Now that they were older several aunts and uncles decided that they should go back with their real mother. None of them kept in mind that they had been kept from this secret. Some even had the audacity to scold Kagome for not asking to go back sooner. When she snapped back that she was living with her real mother they looked at her like she was crazy until her mom-wait no-until Fumake stepped in and yelled at them how she wasn't supposed to ever know. Souta started crying and her real mother Fumiko came up.

Nothing stayed the same eventually Kagome and Souta moved in with Fumiko. Then Kagome found out that she was an alcoholic and everything went down from there. She had to get a job so Souta, Fumiko, and she could keep their apartment and eat. Kagome had asked for money to pay the bills before but the response she got was how until they came everything had been fine. She found the letters her grandfather sent to her and the responses her mother forged. To say she was sick of her new life was an understatement. She didn't even have time to think about the feudal era. For now her only concern was Souta. She was turning 17 in 3 months and then she would have another year before she could legally take care of Souta on her own.

It was times like this that she would daydream of what her life would be like if her father was still alive. She was glad that she did have memories of him and they were all happy. If only her brother could have those memories to. Then maybe it wouldn't be so bad when their mom hit them and cussed them out. She could tell it was effecting him no matter how hard she tried to keep him sheltered from her. Slowly she shook her head and missed the happy days when they still lived with Fumake and her grandfather was alive and the well was working. Even before the well. She missed all of those carefree times and would trade in just about anything to get them back. But for now she just had to try to make things better even if it was only a little. So she need to decide if she would write to her other grandfather tonight. But before any of that she needed to go get some food so her mother would stop yelling at her to hurt up and bring her some.

"Souta come with me we need to go to the store."

When she got back from the store she heard her mother's door open. Wincing she quickly hid her brother so he wouldn't have to deal with her drunken wrath. As she turned to go back to the groceries she only saw her mother's hand as it came down on her cheek.

"You stupid b*%$&! Where were you? I told you to make me something to eat an hour ago. You think you can just ignore me, and go anywhere you want whenever you want! Not in my house. I pay the bills, I put food on the table and I raised you. You better learn some respect!"

With a glare Kagome sucked in a breath. "Ok first of all I had to go to the store if anyone here wanted to eat tonight, since instead of using the money my grandparents give you for Souta and me, you go and waste it on your precious alcohol. Second I don't need your permission to do anything. As long as I'm the one really taking care of my brother and myself, I don't need to listen to you because I could go to the police right now and have you locked up. I just haven't because I don't like to deal with messy situations, don't think that means I won't."

"And lastly you don't do any one of the things you just listed. All you do is sit in your room all day drinking and sleeping. I'm the one paying the bills and you haven't given me any money for that. I'm the one who goes and makes sure there is food in this house to go on the floor since we don't even have a table. And I am the one who is raising myself, and before that was Fumake so don't even kid yourself. You didn't even take care of me when I was little and my dad was still alive. So I think its you who has the problem with respect." She snarled out bitterly.

With a wild screech her mother lunged at her and started attacking.

A half hour later she went to go get her brother from hiding. At least her mother hadn't found him and beat him. With a deep aching sigh she wiped away his tears. "Its ok Souta she went back to her room, she won't hurt you. Come on and help me with dinner." He slowly nodded and followed her, nervously looking her over and seeing all of her wounds from the most recent fight. There was a couple of scratches on her arms and some bruises. The worst was the small gash on her cheek, right above the still healing burn from 3 days ago.

He knew his mother was insecure of her looks and purposely did whatever she could to make her daughter look bad. The guilt racked him as he knew he did nothing to stop her or help his sister. It just wasn't in his nature to hurt someone intentionally unless he had no choice what-so-ever. But he's twelve years old, so he needs to learn how to suck it up and do whatever he can to help his sister.

The pair stayed quiet as they made miso soup and Shabu-shabu**.** Shabu-shabu is tender, thin slices of beef held with chopsticks and swished around in a pot of boiling water, then dipped in sauce before being eaten. Miso soup is a soup consisting of a stock called "dashi" into which softened miso paste is mixed. It was actually a very nice dinner considering it was from Kagome's small salary.

As they sat together on the floor Kagome decided that she would make her decision in getting their grandparents involved if Souta wanted her to. "Koishii (beloved) tell me the truth. Are you miserable?" "No sister I am fine I only worry about you. She does not mess with me that much, I just wish that it was me she would hurt instead of you." "Ai (love) don't worry about me. I just want to make sure that you have the best life possible right now. Is there anything you would like for me to do?" "Le (no) I am happy that if I had to have this life I got such an amazing sister with me."

"Ai, what would you say if I could possibly get more money to help our life style." "Don't I don't want you working another job. It's bad enough you work so much now while you're still going to school. I don't need anything that I don't already have" "I am not talking about just what you need but what you want as well." "I want for you to quit your job. I want the money our mother has to take care of us to actually take care of us. I don't want you to have to take care of me like I'm your child and your some teen mom without any outside help."

Kagome stared at him in amazement. "Souta, do you want me to ask our grandparents for help. To at the very least send me the money instead of her. If I do then I won't have to work a job and I'll be home more. She won't be able to drink as much because her money that pays for them is going to be gone. However I can't do anything about treating you like my child. It's my job as your big sister to make sure you get taken care of. No matter what."

"Then when I turn 18 I'll move out. And I'm am going to fight the courts for you and expose her for what she is. I can't do that now because I'm not legally an adult and who knows where they will have us go. Plus there would be no guarantee that they would keep us together."

"This could make life a little better for us. Or it could just complicate things. It can go either way so tell me what you want to do Ai. You're the man of the house so you make the big decisions. I'll just help you out when you need it."

"Are you sure that our grandparents would believe this and send the money to you?" "No."

"Will the money going to us will make her drink less?" "I don't know."

"Will she be more violent without the alcohol?" "Probably."

"Do you know for sure the court will believe you?" "No."

"Do you think they will let me live with you." "I don't know for sure Ai."

"How will you get our grandparents to even know of the situation?" "I'm going to write a letter."

"What if they decide to turn her in and take us?" "I don't know."

"Will it be better?" "Probably if they are willing to go out of their way to take us from her."

"Will you be happy?" "I will if you are."

"Will we stay together no matter what?" "I will do anything in my power to make sure that we are not separated from each other."

"What would you write to our grandparents?" "I would ask to meet them in person and tell them to their face what has been going on. That way they know I'm not lying and I will know if they truly care."

"Would you take me with you to this meeting?" "Of course."

"Should I go get a paper and a pen?" "If you truly want me to do this."

"Aye, I will be right back then. Do you want a textbook to write on?" "Hai."


End file.
